Today's song is taken from a tour tape for an upcoming west coast tour titled Live At Lemp in which Abi was backed by The Oozers (Nevada Nieves on Guitar, Jimmy Eberly on Drums, Mikey Crotty on Bass). The tape's available from Under The Gun Records.
I've said it before ("If you were to ask me who my favourite vocalists were at the moment I'd have to think long and hard and write you out a comprehensive list, but one name that would definitely be on there is Abi Ooze."https://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/2023/02/abi-ooze-alien.html) and I'll say it again, I'm a massive fan of Abi Ooze.
Aka as Jade Baisa, when you see there's new music by her you just know it's going to hit that sweet spot. Jangly garage/power pop, it's a joy. So when I crawled out of bed this morning and stumbled on a new song I knew I had to shout about it.
It's featured on a 40 track compilation album from the see/saw newsletter titled BATTLE FOR L.A.: a see/saw benefit. There's some great bands on there (Gee Tee, Neo Neos, Billiam...) and all the songs are previously unreleased. All proceeds go directly to individuals and families impacted by the Eaton and Palisades Fires in Los Angeles earlier this year.
If you were to ask me who my favourite vocalists were at the moment I'd have to think long and hard and write you out a comprehensive list, but one name that would definitely be on there is Abi Ooze. Real name Jade Baisa and member of mega cool band Liquids she's quickly turning into a Just Some Punk Songs regular.
Today I'm posting a song from a new 7 track demo cassette titled Julia's Apartment. The songs, we're told, are Not polished. Not perfect. They are bloody good though! Lo-fi garage pop tunes of the type that's made her so popular amongst the kind of folk that check out this blog. You can get the cassette (ltd to (probably) 100 copies) and digital download here : https://abiooze.bandcamp.com/album/julias-apartment-demos
A song which I assume is about a failing relationship, this is Alien...
Hailing from Hammond, Indiana and having introduced herself (to me at least) as a member of mega cool band Liquids, Abi Ooze released a very fine debut EP at the back end of last year titles R.I.P. It wasn't her first release under her own name (although strictly speaking as her real name is Jade Baisa I suppose I should write stage name?), there'd already been a few cassettes but I missed them. Anyway, R.I.P. was on Bandcamp as a name your price download (https://abiooze.bandcamp.com/album/r-i-p) and it was also available as a 7" single (sadly on Bandcamp it said it was "Abi Ooze’s first and last 7” release" which suggested this could be a short lived project.
And then came a song on the Introductory Rites comp from No Label which I described as "short, catchy and every bit as good as anything on R.I.P." (https://nolabel3.bandcamp.com/track/abi-ooze-run-and-hide). But was it a new track, signifying Abi Ooze was very much still a going concern or was it just something hanging around that had found a home?
Happily, the upcoming release of the Forestdale Sessions ep suggests it's the former. With songs written in 2022 ("5 quick Joan Jett/Ramones style pogo punker hits + 1 ballad + 1 stellar Shangri Las cover"), hopefully this is just the early stages of what's shaping up to be a stellar body of work. You can pre order the cassette or digital download from Rotten Apple : https://rottenapplelabel.bandcamp.com/album/abi-ooze-forestdale-sessions
There's one track streaming already and it's every bit as good as we could have hoped for. There's been some awesome power pop tunes released in 2022, here's another one to add to that list. Lyrically sad, musically totally uplifting, this is wonderful. It's called Cry Alone...
If any of you actually clicked the link and checked out the chart you may now be wondering who the hell is Jaid Baisa! It's actually the real name of American punk musician and documentarian Abi Ooze who first came to my attention as a member of mega cool Hammond, Indiana band Liquids (https://liquids1.bandcamp.com/) and who went onto release a very fine 7" titled R.I.P. (https://abiooze.bandcamp.com/releases).
Given the ep's title, plus the fact that the Bandcamp page stated it was Abi Ooze’s first and last 7” release, it was assumed that would be all we'd be hearing from her.
Happily, the release of a new song on a compilation tape from Milwaukee label No Label suggests maybe there's more to come. The cassette is titled Introductory Rites, it features bands such as Total Sham, Easy Targets, Foil and others and it's available as a cassette & name your price download here : https://nolabel3.bandcamp.com/album/introductory-rites
The Abi Ooze track is short, catchy and every bit as good as anything on R.I.P. and it's called Run And Hide...
